Banned user

Unfortunately, some people don’t know when to shut up. I’ve decided to ban “Hhomeboy” from posting on this site. I’m reluctant to do so, especially as he obviously has a great deal of knowledge to contribute. He has refused to restrict his relentless pomposity and snarkiness masquerading as advice. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve asked me to ban him before now and so I hope this doesn’t seem overly vindictive or authoritarian. He’ll no doubt take this as more “evidence” of my inability to take criticism, something that I hope will be news to all those whose welcome comments have benefited the site.

Comments

• N afannomore on Tue 6 May 2003, 12:56pm

  Hhomeboy, who is one of my five favorite annotators was attacked personally, repeatedly and unfairly by lager lout Todd and others with “phil” joining in with glee. You sir are a venomous airhead and need lessons and probably a four year degree in netiquette.

  You must apologise to me and to others, to say nothing of Hhomeboy, for your disgraceful conduct.

  You have unmasked yourself as a preposterous poseur and quite unlike Pepys who would have enjoyed all this immensely.

  Gyford is a bully and impostor…if anyone cares to figure out this sad sack, go to his sight and check out the “vanity” photo show. Aggh!
  

• N Todd Bernhardt on Tue 6 May 2003, 01:08pm

  Phil, if you’d like to send me the complete header info from the post above, as well as from one of Hhomeboy’s posts, I’d be happy to help figure out if Hhomeboy and afannomore (who, oddly, has never even posted, much less taken the time to defend Hhomeboy, before now) are one and the same person.

  -Todd “Actually, I prefer a nice stout” Bernhardt

• N Phil on Tue 6 May 2003, 01:14pm

  No worries Todd. To be honest, I’d have been less likely to ban Hhomeboy if anyone had spoken up in his favour at any point. But no one has defended him here or via personal email to me, either before or since he was belatedly given one last chance several weeks ago. It’s too late now.

  Yes, he posted valuable information that it will be a shame to lose. But information isn’t everything; being able to interact and cooperate with a group of others is a useful skill.

• N afannomore on Tue 6 May 2003, 01:24pm

  Sorry. I have been watching in awe this site and learning quite a bit. This is called lurking on messageboards.

  I just never thought this sort of childish behaviour would lend itself to a board of this ideal.

  The UK being socialist is there some sort of board to file a complaint against this sort of censorship?

  It’s a shame that someone people’s ego could ruin a special experiance for so many…

  As an experianced messageboard person and moderator of a few boards I can tell you how dissapointed I am to see this sort of developement.

  Jamie

• N Phil on Tue 6 May 2003, 01:33pm

  Yes, it’s always a shame when one person spoils a site for everyone else.

  For the record, the banning of Hhomeboy extends to his ‘real world’ identity — I’ve just deleted a comment from him too.

• N Laura K on Tue 6 May 2003, 01:45pm

  Thank you thank you thank you!!!!

  Good work, Phil. Prune the diseased branch, and the tree will thrive.

  I hope this is not considered gloating, and if it is, I do apologize. It’s just that this news is such a welcome relief.

  And now, back to the Diary!
  

• N JFX on Tue 6 May 2003, 02:03pm

  This decision means I can actually look at the annotations again. Thank you very much.

  JFX

  PS - The UK being socialist? Who IS this madman?

  That will have spoilt Tony Blair’s 50th birthday (if he’s reading)

• N Mary on Thu 8 May 2003, 08:21am

  Would Pepys have enjoyed all this immensely?

  I don’t think so. He has shown us already that he is intolerant of indecorous behaviour that goes beyond mere high spirits. He would certainly never have attacked his patron in the kind of terms that we have seen in this particular discussion; and Phil is, in a sense, patron to all of us who enjoy this site so much.

• N tamara on Thu 8 May 2003, 07:33pm

  Evidently
  Hhomeboy is writing to anyone who has posted an address to this site, since I just got an unsolicited email from him. He seems a controlling kind of personality ready to crap on Phil for not acting on his suggestions.

• N Laura Brown on Thu 8 May 2003, 07:45pm

  I got the e-mail too

  And I am really pissed off. I have NEVER corresponded with Hhomeboy, and in fact have made a point of avoiding him and his sock-puppets and any discussion that touches upon them. For someone who doesn’t make a hobby of engaging in flame wars, it can be very distressing to get an insulting e-mail out of the blue (I’ve been too busy to look at the site for the past few days, so I didn’t know about any of this).

  Anyway, well done Phil for banning him. If I hear from him again I’ll complain to his ISP too.

• N vincent on Thu 8 May 2003, 08:11pm

  emails un wanted: only open mail from a good known source: just use the right mouse key and delete. It is at the bottom of the list of choices :; ignore ‘tis his fun to rile and get a response:

• N qB on Thu 8 May 2003, 09:14pm

  Thank you, thank you Phil.

  Although moving the contributer’s name to the top of posts meant being able to avoid those of his contributions that were, deceptively, less than a page in length, he was certainly a serpent in my personal diary eden.

  I thought you were courtesy and tact personified in dealing with him, and I’m so very glad he’s gone.

• N Grahamt on Thu 8 May 2003, 10:02pm

  [Comment deleted at Hhomeboy’s request, 11 May 2003. See below.]

• N Bullus Hutton on Thu 8 May 2003, 11:27pm

  [Comment deleted at Hhomeboy’s request, 11 May 2003. See below.]

• N Susanna on Thu 8 May 2003, 11:41pm

  If the lurkers all love him in email, it must be because they’re not getting his mass mailings of pompous, self-pitying drivel. (Yes, here too. Pfft.) Thank you for banning him, Phil. You were more than patient.

• N Todd Bernhardt on Fri 9 May 2003, 12:04am

  [Comment deleted at Hhomeboy’s request, 11 May 2003. See below.]

• N vera on Fri 9 May 2003, 11:17am

  (Sussana)Being a ‘lurker’
  I can certainally say that Hhomeboy does not come across very well! Phil has my full support - Here is an extract of an email I sent to Phil (hope you don’t mind Phil - but this is getting beyond a joke)

  “I see the following from his (Hhomeboys)older posts - Some interesting (but VERY opinionated) info is supplied but along with it there is an abundance of overly used archaic / technical / foreign words / quotes / statements - I feel the general tone of these posts is belittling and he do like to make some personal comments doesn’t he (VERY unprofessional).

  Generally (and it is a general comment) people who behave like this are quite insecure and HAVE to tell other people how clever they are (‘cos how else would you know??) and everybody knows that the BEST way of making yourself feel good and show other people how smart you are is to put the other person down (follow me?)

  All in all, It comes across as more than a fair smidgen of ‘sour grapes’ that you got there first with the idea! I wonder if, had the positions been reversed, would he have been so tolerant of you! I very much doubt it.”

• N Sam P on Fri 9 May 2003, 11:33am

  [Comment deleted at Hhomeboy’s request, 11 May 2003. See below.]

• N Phil on Fri 9 May 2003, 11:39am

  Thanks for the support everyone. Unless there are further developments, I’d like to move on and get back to the diary. Cheers!

• N Phil on Sun 11 May 2003, 03:06pm

  Hhomeboy sent me an email requesting that all comments referring to his “real life” identity be deleted, coming close to threatening legal action if this didn’t happen. While I doubt there is any legal basis for this I have complied; life’s too short.

  Anyone desperate to deduce Hhomeboy’s identity only has to enter the domain name from the email address on one of his annotations into a whois server such as this: http://www.geektools.com/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi

  I’m now closing comments on this thread so we can move on.